Pressure mounting on G4 boss Buckles to resign

The future of G4S boss Nick Buckles hangs in the balance as pressure for him to resign increases after the Government was forced to call in the Army to plug the gap in personnel at his security firm.

Embattled G4S chief Buckles has so far found only 4,000 of the 10,000 staff needed to fulfil its contract to provide security for London 2012.

Despite the pressure Buckles is keen to stay on at the security firm and "deliver on the contract" for the Olympics.

An insider at Locog, the body set up to prepare and stage the 2012 Games, said questions have to be answered about why only one firm was given the security contract fol-lowing a bidding process. When bids for the contract from firms were received it is thought G4S offered to do the job at a cost of 25 per cent less than the other nearest bidder.

G4S has been slammed for waiting so late to inform the Government of problems in providing the num- bers needed.

But Mr Buckles, who earns a base salary of £830,000 a year, said the Olympic organisers were late in sending his company final details of how many security staff would actually be needed.

The firm faces a loss of up to £50m on the contract, including penalty fees thought to be between £10m to £20m. G4S had previously forecast a profit of £10m this year from the Olympic contract.